Thing 23: "This is The End; So long, my friend, The End"

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
Blogging, Flickr, Zoho, the prizewinning products. I particularly enjoyed creating and maintaining my blog. I think this is because I like to talk and expound and blogging is the perfect opportunity to do this!

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?

I will continue to learn about web-based products and tools. I also found that I have a tendency to just ram my way through even if I'm not understanding what I am doing. For example, I plan on going back and redoing some of the 23 Things so I'll understand them better because I sped through the first time.

3. Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

I truly enjoyed the collaborative aspect of this learning, that is, the fact that most staff members in Southern Maryland were working on this project and we were able to talk about the project with each other.

I am disappointed that of the 100 or so blogs from Southern Maryland, most are not very good and do not reflect any true effort being put into the project or into learning. Very few blogs address one of the key points of the project--How does Web 2.0 affect libraries? Very few blogs even answer the question--How can the tool or "thing" be used in a library or by librarians?

I found this very disappointing.

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program'ss format or concept?

Make the library and program connection more obvious--perhaps chose examples or tools that are being used more prominantly by libraries.

I know from watching five people struggle while doing some of the "things" that there is a wide range of skill level of people doing the program. Be aware that there will be some people doing it who are not very computer literate.

5. If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate?

Yes.

6. How would you describe your learning experience in a few words or a few sentences, so we can share our successes and promote this program?

Say!
I like 23 Things and Web 2.0!
I do! I like them, Jen-You-Know!

And I would try Flickr in a boat.
And I would try tagging with a goat.

And I will write my blog in the rain.
And in the dark. And on a train.
And in a car. And in a tree.
It is so good, so good, you see!

So I will try RSS in a box.
And I will try Rollyo with a fox.
And I will try feeds in a house.
And I will try Meez with a mouse.
And I will try wikis here and there.
Say! I will try YouTube ANYWHERE!

I do so like
23 Things and Web 2.0!
Thank you!
Thank you,
Jen-You-Know!

Thing 22: Overdrove

I've used Overdrive before. When they added movies, I couldn't resist checking out the playlist and I registered. I ended up checking out The Battleship Potemkin because I wanted to see the Odessa step scene again. I got it working and watched bits and pieces of the movie at work for the next couple of weeks.

This time I decided to check out an audiobook. I don't have a player, so I downloaded a book (Saving Shiloh by Phyllis Renynolds Naylor) to my computer here at work. I find Overdrive very easy to use. One of the best things is not having to remember any logins or passwords; just scan your library card and you're in like Flynn. Once inside the website, if you have ever bought anything or downloaded anything from the web, it is easy to figure out if your title is available and how to "buy" the title by downloading it. Of course, I might have had it easy since I was downloading to my computer, not to a player.

One thing that did disconcert me was that the first 5 or 6 titles I looked at were all checked out and a few even had holds on them! I guess I shouldn't have been surprised but I was. I'm not aware of the Overdrive circulation statistics but they must be better than I thought.

If I ever buy a player, I would definitely use the Overdrive titles available in our catalog.

Thing 21: Castaway

I like podcasts although they are less interesting than video. I suppose watching someone expound isn't that interesting either, so for some things podcasting is an easier and cheaper alternative to video which still allows for content to quickly reach an audience.

I explored the three podcast search tools. Here is my take on them:

Podcast.net--the worst of the three. I search for "library" and got about half the hits I had gotten on the other two and none of the podcasts seemed to be from 2007! Thumbs down!

Podcastalley.com--This one had more hits than Podcast.net and recent 'casts. The only think I really didn't like about Podcast alley were the ads. Thumbs up!

Yahoo podcasts: This one had even more hits than Postcast Alley, but it looked like a lot of them were duplicates. I did like the fact that they had ratings for each podcast. Thumbs up!

I downloaded one podcast into my blog from Podcast Alley called LibVibe which looks like a good library-based blog (has library news). Each 'cast is sort of long for my taste, but I realized that I was just sitting there listening rather than listening and doing something else.

The advantage of the podcast over a video is that you can definitely multitask while listening to one rather than just sitting and staring at your computer screen. Podcasts may grow on me for this reason.

Thing 20: YouTubing down the information highway

As you can see, I've been playing around with YouTube. Naturally, I looked for library related videos since I needed to limit my searches in some way. I stumbled across a video of a Second Life avatar skating on Info Island. That video gave me intriguing glimpses of the libraries themselves, so I explored some more and found this video tour of the whole Info Island Archepeglio. Actually, looking at these Second Life YouTube videos has gotten me intrigued about Second Life itself! Another benefit of doing 23 Things!

I suppose I should go watch something on YouTube of more substance, such as the Presidential candidate debates, but I find myself wanting to see all the silly things I've read about such as "Zombie Boy Likes Turtles" and so forth. I think that is one of the dangers of YouTube--there is a lot of dross mixed in with just a few videos with actual substantive content. But I suppose that is reflected in the rest of the world also.

I can see libraries using YouTube in many ways, but since there are so many videos on the service, it might be hard to get an audience.

Info Island Archipelago Tour in Second Life

Interesting tour of the alternative library world of Second Life.

Flickr redux: Eydeet

Eydeet
Originally uploaded by myfunnygame

I realized that I hadn't done Flickr justice, so I'm redoing "Thing 5" a bit. I figured out how to download directly from Flickr. This way I don't have to save the picture to my computer.

It is sort of cool, I must admit.

This picture is by Walter Moers who writes and illustrates really great fantasy novels. He should be more famous than he is.

Blog tips

I've been looking at the blogs done by Southern Maryland participants in "23 Things." It is amazing the variety in styles, content and quality. Some blogs are excellent and reflect a lot of work; others, not so much.

Here are some tips that will help make your blog better:

*Name each post appropriate to the "Thing" you are blogging about, i.e., "Thing 5: Flickr".

*Short is not sweet. Don't write single line entries. Write about your learning experience. So, don't just write, "I tried Flickr today. The End." Write about what you thought about the "thing" (likes and dislikes), how you might use the product or knowledge in your personal and/or professional life. Think about how each product can be used in the library setting.

*The best blogs include tidbits of the personal among the professional discussions.

*Use pictures and graphics to spice up your blog. You don't have to use pictures of yourself or family members. You can pull graphics from the web to jazz up the topic.

*Spell check.

*Don't forget that you can always edit your post after it has been published.

*Have fun!

Some good Southern Maryland "23 Things" blogs:

http://23librarian.blogspot.com/

http://brianreal.blogspot.com/

http://mwhoolery.blogspot.com/

http://grabbag37600.blogspot.com/

Thing 19: It's a Lulu of a deal

I've actually used a few of the 2.0 award winners which is a good feeling! It means I'm not as out of it as I think I am!

I've used Technorati (of course), 43 Things, Pandora, Flickr, Rollyo, YouTube, and Del.icio.us.

I spent some time looking at Lulu which is a free self-publishing site. I'm really not interested in publishing anything of my own (yet!), but it is interesting to see the types of material that other people are publishing. There was a pretty wide variety. Through Lulu you can publish books of all types, videos, calendars, music, and artwork. Lulu publishes "on demand" so the author is not required to have 100 copies of a book printed--items are printed as they are ordered. This seems to me to be a vast improvement over other types of self-publishing.

Lulu has a tutorial which walks the new user through the publishing process. The tutorial is excellent. It describes the type of materials you can publish through Lulu, how to publish an item, how to create cover art for your item and the pricing guidelines. The author sets the price which allows for great flexibility.

One interesting aspect of Lulu is that you can actually "publish" to a website that thus restricts who has access to it.

I have a friend who is writing a screenplay, so I'm going to point him to Lulu so he can publish it without cost or fuss.

Check out Lulu below:

http://www.lulu.com/

Musings on Things

I am galloping through this exercise in Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 way too fast. I feel like I'm in a race, mostly with myself!

I can't spend too much time on it at work because of other obligations;

I want to rush through the reading to do the more exciting and fun online activities;

I want to rush through each "Thing" so I can mark it off my list and move on to the next "thing";

I want to jump on my blog and egotistically share my feelings and thoughts with the rest of the world;

And so forth.

But now I realize, did I really grasp all the potential uses of Flickr?

If someone were to ask me to explain what mashups are, could I?

Do I really understand RSS feeds?

Why do I keep getting Bloglines, Technorati, and Rollyo confused?

 

Perhaps at the end of 23Things there should be a short test:

1. What is a blog?
2. What is Flickr and how do people use it? Why is it considered a social networking tool?
3. What are RSS feeds?
4. How are RSS feeds different or the same as the Blogline service?
5. What did Rollyo do?
6. What are tags?
7. What is the primary use for Del.icio.us and why would people subscribe to it?
8. What did Technorati do?
9. Describe wikis and their uses.
10. How is an online productivity tool (word processing through Zoho, for example) different from word processing using Microsoft Word?
11. How could the library use YouTube?
12. How could the library use podcasts?

Slow down everyone--and I'm also talking to myself! Read the Library 2.0 blog, click onto all the links to see where they go, and really take the time to absorb what is being presented. The idea is to learn 23 things, not to simply check 23 things off a list.

Thing 18, part 2: More musings

I actually think that it might be better to use an online productivity tool to write blog posts. It was quite easy to create a document and then download it to my blog.

Zoho has many more options when it comes to formatting text than Blogger and I like this more "Word"-like ability.

I will have to seriously consider this option when creating my next blog.

Thing 18: Zoho ho ho!

Well, I'm writing this blog post using Zoho Writer. This is my second attempt at doing this because the first time I got an error message that just flashed, flashed, flashed, flashed, flashed... I finally had to use my Task Manager to close the program.

I decided to open up the website using Explorer rather than Netscape and see if that makes a difference.

Anyway, I like the idea of free "Microsoft Office" style software. It seems like it helps a bit with the digital divide--people who don't have computers can use this software in the library to create resumes, letters, and so forth and then can save their documents online to retrieve when needed.

Let's test some of the Zoho "Word" capabilities:

• Bullets:
• Italics;
• Bold
• Insert picture

So far so good!

Now I'll try to download this entry into my blog! Wish me luck!

Things 16-17: Wiki wacky wonky

Oy vey! There seems to be no end to how a wiki could be utilized! I had flashes of ideas as I was reading through the various articles.

For example, Access Southern Maryland is currently just a bland website of weblinks. Why not expand it into a more interactive community-driven Wiki that still has all the websites we've selected but much, much more?!

Many libraries have been working to make themselves a physical hub of the community. With community programming and useful workshops, libraries have attracted people to library who may otherwise have never visited. What about making the library’s website the online hub of the community? Libraries could create a community wiki that would be a one-stop-shop for community information. With the input of the entire community, it could become whatever the community needs it to be. Want to know who the best mechanic is for fixing old Toyotas? Check the automotive reviews on the wiki. Want to know when your child’s next Little League game is? Check the team information page the coach set up on the
wiki. Want to find the spiciest Thai food in town? Read the member reviews in the restaurant section. Anyone could add new informative content. The library could team up with other local organizations to develop, maintain and add content to the wiki, but the bulk of the content will come from average member of the community. Opening up a community guide to the public allows a wealth of information to flow in that can make the library’s website a true community resource.

[From: Using Wikis to Create Online Communities, by Meredith Farkas.]

I also like the idea of having policy and procedure manuals online in a wiki format--not necessarily so all outsiders edit them, but to make it easier for selected staff members to quickly perform updates. I know that we have some manuals that this format would be ideal for, since we are constantly adjusting our procedures and rules based on customer demand.

I am still torn between doing a wiki for acquisitions or doing a blog. The blog format would be more manageable, but maybe there would be more buy-in from our customers if they knew they could add content too.

Something to think about.

Thing 15: To infinity .... and beyond!

Interesting subject this week on Web 2.0 and Library 2.0. I agree that libraries need to respond to the culture they exist in and our culture is moving toward one where the user (customer) is in charge and he or she requires and expects more flexibility and ease in his or her interactions with institutions and information.


Of course, I am also most interested in how all this will affect my library speciality, cataloging. Traditional cataloging, justifiably, has come under the most fire in the Web 2.0 world for being too rigid. In a world where people are tagging their blogs, tagging their Flickr pictures and creating mini-bibliographic descriptions of items in their digital world, the library MARC record and use of the Library of Congress Subject Headings does seem old-fashioned.

However, I am concerned with this rush toward customer-based description. I am afraid that people will forget why authority control, MARC tags and classification schemes were created in the first place--to provide standardization in a world that is anything but. That said, customer tags are also valuable since they provide a glimpse into how people are actually thinking about and mentally categorizing material. Obviously, there needs to be a way to accommodate both customer-based "natural language" tags and standardized headings.

Unwanted Things

Today I got an email saying that I had a comment on my Thing 13-14 blog post. I was psyched until I went and read it and saw that it was spam! Spam on a Library 2.0 blog!

Here is how I deleted it:

1. First, I had to go to Settings and then Comments to change my Comments setup to Enable Comment Moderation. (It was set to "No" and I needed to change it to "Yes").
2. After this change was saved, I then went to the Posting tab. On the Posting tab, at the top, there is a tab for "Edit Posts."
3. In "Edit Posts," you see a list of all the posts you've written listed first in reverse order that they are written and by title. An example of a line from the post list is below:

Edit

View

Thing 10: Fun with images!

1 comment

by Susan G.

7/16/07

Delete

4. As you see, if there is a comment, it will link to it. To delete the comment, click onto the comment link.
5. You will then see the original post along with the comment at the bottom.
6. To delete, click onto the little trashcan icon that will display at the end of the comment by the comment's original date.
7. Once you've clicked on the icon, you will see the comment again and will need to check a box that says, "Delete forever? It can't be undone."
8. Check the box and then click on the "Delete Comment" box.
9. The unwanted comment is gone!

Thing 13-14: Tag-alongs

I have mixed feelings about the "things" this week. In general, these two were sort of blah to me.

I can see how Del.icio.us is useful for compiling all of your bookmarks in one place. I bet every one of us has been at some time been at a strange computer and wished we could quickly hook into our favorite blog or website. Del.icio.us allows you to compile a list of all your bookmarks in one place that you can then access from any computer. That is cool.

So far, one disadvantage that I could see of Del.icio.us is that there didn't seem to be any way to "group" your bookmarks. I want to have my adoption bookmarks separate from work bookmarks separate from blogs, etc. I didn't see a way to do this.

As for the tagging aspect of it, so far at least, my attitude is "so what?" To me, the tags would have to be very specific to be of any use (like the suggested tag of "mdlearn2" which is so specific that the number of bookmarks found when doing the search is reasonable). I mean, most of my tags would link to thousands of other bookmarks--too many to be of any use.

I also explored Technorati which was interesting, I suppose. I searched for blogs on specific topics and did come up with some interesting hits, but it didn't seem useful enough to get all excited about. I mean, you can use Google to search for blogs too. I wasn't able to access the video that we were supposed to watch about Technorati so perhaps that would have helped!

Thing 12: Rolling away

Well, I created two search tool using Rollyo--for what it's worth. The first was "Art Reference" and it included an anime site, IMDB, IBDB (Internet Broadway Database), and a Rolling Stone reference site. This was a pretty minimal search roll, I'll have to admit.

As I got to thinking about the uses of a search roll, I thought of a more relevant one for us and libraries. I created one called "Southern Maryland" that had sites that allowed for searches of various Southern Maryland sites. This is the type of use a Rollyo account and search roll might have for a library--creating local search rolls for customers.

Also, Rollyo has a lot of canned sites that could be useful for library patrons if access were permitted.

Thing 11: A busman's holiday for me

I actually had already explored LibraryThing a few months ago. I initially wanted to use it to catalog my large collection of Christmas music CD's which could use some form of bibliographic control. Although the website implies it is useful for creating music catalogs, I disagree. I could not find MARC records for many titles in my CD collection so I gave up in disgust.

I then decided to catalog my collection of film books--this was much more successful and I cataloged 41 titles.

Despite the fact I was able to fairly easily create a catalog list, I don't know if I'd ever really use this service. Sure, I'm a cataloger by trade, but it seems almost too nerdy to have your own library online. Then again, sometimes I do have a hard time finding books that I know I own.....

Thing 10: Fun with images!

I created a Simpson's avatar in my first online image generator exercise.

She's supposed to look sort of like me, but I'm not sure how successful I was in this first attempt! It was fun to do though!

http://www.simpsonsmovie.com/main.html

Here is another awesome image generator--a sketch that is made from a photograph! Isn't she cute?

The link to this generator is:
http://www.dumpr.net/sketch.php

Thing 8-9: RSS my ARSE

Hmmm. Not a very successful day trying to RSS and feed my blog. Once I found one library-related blog, I ended up adding a lot of feeds to my Bloglines account by just clicking onto the "related feeds" tab. It sort of felt like cheating, but I did find a lot of cool library blogs.

I don't know if I'd ever really use the account, but I guess if I wanted to keep track of a lot of blogs it would be useful. I do have a few personal ones I look at occasionally, so maybe it would be worth a try. But for only one or two blogs, it certainly doesn't seem worth the effort.

I did add to my blog the list of Blogline feeds I compiled. Since most of them were chosen fairly randomly, I hope there isn't anything offensive in the mix!

Practical library applications:
Perhaps on a library's website they could have a blog feed of blogs of local people, including local office holders, businesses, clubs, nonprofits, as well as library staff members. I'm not sure how selection would be done--perhaps similarly to how we vet the Community Information database. There would need to be strict guidelines that blogs need to be relevant to the area and also relatively "public" friendly. Once it is all set up, a monthly or bimonthly run through of the blogs to make sure none have gone south would be needed.

Tips for adding feeds to your Blogline account:

Have a few blogs already earmarked to add, otherwise creating feeds is pretty frustrating. You can find interesting blogs by limiting Google to search for blogs and then do a subject search.

New things on my blog

I just added a poll and changed my template!

Please let me know what you think of this template and don't forget to vote in the poll!

It's a Flickr World!

I've just touched the edges of Flickr (created my own account and uploaded a few photos to it), but it does look like a valuable (and fun) tool. I really need to play around with it a lot more to truly appreciate what it offers.


Of the mashups and 3rd party sites, I explored the trading card and mosaic ones. Here is a trading card that I made with my daughter's baby picture on it (below). It is pretty basic since I didn't know what I was doing, but I can see how fun it would be to create a whole deck of these card for your family and friends!



As for using Flickr in the library world, I can see using some of 3rd party sites (like the trading card or mosaic maker) to create fun visuals for your library. Perhaps a "Favorite Book" trading card series (with covers of books as the visual) and then comments from staff and patrons in the text section. Copyright issues may prohibit this, but it is an idea.


An interesting mashup is the map one that allows people to post photographs that they've taken around the world in juxtaposition to a world map, showing where the photo was taken. This might be a fun thing to do with patrons--have a library site where people can show scenes from their vacations.

Things 3-4: Setting up your blog

Tip and tricks for newbies creating blogs using Blogger.com

Use Internet Explorer--it seems to work best with the blog website;

Have a blog name already picked out. Make it snappy and fun!

Use your blog name as part of your blog address--it makes it easier for both you and other people to remember!

Click onto Continue at the bottom to go to the next step;

After selecting your template and hitting continue, your blog is ready for its first post! I recommend at this point, clicking on the Settings tab (at the top) and then clicking onto all the options on the tool bar. This will give you a good idea of the different options you will have.

When writing you post, notice that you have the option to include different fonts and text that is italic, bold, and in color. You can also insert images:

To actually create the post, use "Publish Post" not save.

One last thing to remember: Spellcheck is our friend!

Blogging a dead horse?

The question is, Can a blog be a useful tool to communicate with our customers concerning Technical Services issues?

Right now, more than ever, because of the recent implementation of the acquisitions module, there is a need for quick and efficient communication concerning the new software. I have a newsletter in the works, but an online communication tool may also be valuable.

But, I am not wholly convinced that a blog is the best method for this type of communication.

Why?

I feel that much of the useful communication in a blog is done through the comments sections, but these sections are much less accessible than the main blog entry. If someone has a valuable comment to make--one that would help everyone out--would the comment be read (or recognized as useful) if it is buried among 20 others?

I am looking forward to contrasting the blog experience with the wiki one. The wiki might be a better way to go.

Welcome to the world of Saint Minutia!

Hello fellow librarians and the people who love them!

I have just finished watching and listening to the 71/2 Habits of Lifelong Learners.

I feel that I have a lot of the habits mentioned in the podcast, but probably the most difficult for me is setting a goal. That is, the "Why?" factor. Or, as my boss would say, the "So what?" factor.

Luckily, I believe learning is an end in itself too, so sometimes I just answer back with "Because!"

The easiest of the habits for me is "Have confidence in youself..." No one would ever accuse me of being a shrinking violet!